2008: What could have been.
In early 2008, I
came across screenshots for a then upcoming game called Aliens: Colonial Marines. In development by Gearbox, creators of Opposing Force and Blue Shift expansion packs for the original Half-Life as well as the Borderlands
series, Colonial Marines was to be a squad-based tactical shooter that promised an
authentic recreation of the atmosphere and aesthetic of the sci fi action
classic Aliens. To say I was enthused
would have been the largest of understatements. In fact, it along with BioShock inspired my Xbox 360 purchase
later that year.
But then… things started happening. Delays are
common in the video game industry, especially among high budget, high profile
titles (Grand Theft Auto V, which was
to be released this spring, will not see the light of day until September). One
of the key factors contributing to Colonial
Marines’ belated release was the announcement of British developer
Rebellion’s long-awaited return to the Aliens
versus Predator series. So while I was irked by having to wait a little
longer for A:CM, I knew I would have another game of a slightly different
flavour, and by a developer familiar with the franchise, to tide me over for
the time being.
Five years, two
360s and I forget how many delays later, Aliens:
Colonial Marines finally saw the light of day this February. I was so
accustomed to its seemingly perpetual state of development Hell that a concrete
release date was actually shocking. My interest had been slightly diminished
because of the removal of any squad-based combat and the simple effect of time,
but I would still hear out a few reviews and maybe rent it from Microplay to
test the waters.
I didn’t even
reach the second stage of my plan. Aliens:
Colonial Marines is one of the worst-reviewed mainstream titles in recent
history, its 360 port having garnered a measly 48 per cent on Metacritic (still
beating out its PS3 and PC counterparts, which stand at 43 and 42 per cent,
respectively). My personal experience of the game has been limited to five
minutes of actual gameplay at Microplay and some playthrough videos on YouTube,
and in the cumulative 40 minutes I saw nothing that made me want to rent the
game, let alone buy it. At least not until the price drops to below 10 bucks.
Pathetic as it
is to admit, I wasn’t just disappointed in the game’s failure. I was angry. I hadn’t ever been this excited
for a game, not even for the two Batman Arkham
games. If I can be all fanboyishly melodramatic for a section, it felt like
a personal punch in the gut from Sega and Gearbox, who decided to put out a
crap, throwaway game rather than let me live with a fantasy of what might have
been.
2013: What actually was.
*sighs*
Okay, I’m done.
If there’s a
silver lining to all this, it’s that it’s gotten me to reconsider the very game
that contributed to A:CM’s delays in the first game, the 2010 Aliens versus Predator. I’ve had a long,
mostly pleasant history with the franchise, from Rebellion’s first stab at the
series back in 1999 as well as Monolith’s 2001 sequel (a sequel which, as many
of you might know, was adapted by my grade school self as the mystifying fan fiction epic I’ve been dissecting the past
year on this blog). My history with the 2010 AvP is shorter, not the happiest
and broken in twain, but I’ve recently gone back to it as a kind of rebound
from the Colonial Marines disaster
and only now do I truly see its qualities.
Is the fact that
I’m describing this in relationship terms the saddest thing you’ve ever heard?
Yes. But that’s beside the point. Let us move on.
As you might
have guessed, I didn’t think too highly of AvP 2010 when I first played it. It
was short, to begin with, both in level length and overall campaign time. As
I’ve gotten older, I’ve found that different kinds of games mandate different
lengths of gametime: first person shooters are better suited to 5-10 hour
playthroughs while open world or roleplaying games need to be significantly
longer. AvP leaned toward the leaner end of the former. Looking back, it’s
still quite short, but given that the single player component was divided into
three sections—Alien, Predator and Marine—its brevity might just be a matter of
perception.
Secondly, it
lacked interaction. Two weeks ago, I elaborated on my love of open world action
games, namely the way they allow you to affect the environment and non-playable
characters. AvP isn’t an open world game by any means, and so I would have been
out of my mind to expect similar interactivity, but aside from a few audio
diaries scattered throughout the Marine campaign its level structure is as
linear as any Call of Duty game.
And lastly,
there really wasn’t any further support from the developer or publisher. The
official downloadable content was limited to a measly two map packs (themselves
basically compensating for the initial release’s limited multiplayer offering),
and whatever extended lifespan the game could have had was stymied by a lack of
mod-ability (that is, making the games’ files accessible enough to modify
character appearances, weapon sounds, etc). Both AvP1 and 2 had prolific
modding communities that kept the two games alive long after they should have
expired in the gaming public’s eye, in large part to map and skin development
programs released by Rebellion and Monolith, respectively. AvP 2010, on the
other hand, managed to tread water for a couple months before slipping beneath
the waves of obscurity.
Hmmm. Probably should have included a gore warning.
(I should
mention that the first two AvP games were released near the end of that console
cycle for the time, when PC games usually see a resurgence and increased
support. AvP 2010 was put out while the 360 and PS3 were still at the
forefront, which probably contributed to its lack of continued support as
console-centric games aren’t the most easily modified.)
In light of all
this, 2010 Daniel played AvP for a month, traded it in at the EB from which it
had been purchased (and, it being EB, I barely got anything for it), and then
didn’t think about it for close to three years. Had it not been for Colonial Marines’ colossal critical
failure it probably would have disappeared completely into the recesses of my
mind. But my severe disappointment in CM and longing for what it could have
been made me almost feverishly desire a decent Alien/Predator game, and
to my surprise it was to AvP that I turned. The Centretown Microplay had it for
$15, and so, partly out of desperation, Aliens
vs. Predator and I began anew.
We all know
about nostalgia and its pitfalls, how the present can seem so crappy that,
unconsciously, the memories of things that were pretty much “meh” then and
now—grade school, your first off-campus residence, Transformers—become some of
our fondest. It’s the same concept as “the grass is always greener on the other
side,” but with a temporal bent. But when I went back to AvP 2010, I realized
that whenever I had thought about the game previously, I had been viewing it
through a lens of inverse nostalgia.
That is to say, I was having such a crummy time in my personal and scholarly
lives at the time of its release my memory had made it worse than it actually
was.
To put things in
perspective, my 2009-10 school year sucked.
Because I was a cheapass, I decided to relocate myself to the basement of a
retired Newfoundland jail guard all the way out in Alta Vista (to those not too
familiar with Ottawa, it’s the least accessible part of the city). Getting
anywhere, be it to school or to anyplace interesting—Alta Vista has nothing worth seeing—was a genuine
hassle, I didn’t live close to anybody I knew, and my landlord basically
treated me as one of her former prisoners, going so far as to ban me from
flushing the toilet after 10PM. Basically, Alta Vista sucks, and if you live
there, move as soon as you get the chance.
*fumes*
Bitch went into
my room when I wasn’t there. Oh, if I had known about tenant’s rights back
then…
Anywho, I’m
getting distracted. Basically, I barely had any fun that year, and as a result
it tainted stuff that really wasn’t too bad. And Aliens vs. Predator isn’t too bad—in fact, it’s actually pretty
damn fun. While the problems I listed above remain, it really does have a lot
going for it. The atmosphere is great, capturing the feeling of both Aliens and Predator (and from the perspective of each species, for that
matter. It’s immersive in subtle little ways—if you whip around quickly as the
Alien, you can see your tail quickly glide out of frame—that help to make the
game feel more solid than anything
previously in the series. Each species feels different to play in a really
tangible way.
And you know what? The story isn’t half bad; it doesn’t have half
of the quality of AvP2, which in spite of my preteen attempts at butchering it
actually had one of the best plots in the history of the video game medium. All
in all, and in spite of its flaws, it’s a really fun game that I recommend any Alien or Predator fan take a stab at. It’s available on Xbox Live
Marketplace, Playstation Network and Steam for relatively cheap.
So maybe my love
for the game is a desperate means of coping with Aliens: Colonial Marines’ far less than stellar qualities, an act
of cognitive reframing. But I don’t think I’m delusional about it. Like Prometheus
and Alien³, I recognize its issues
and won’t make excuses for them—that this game hasn’t nothing in the way of a
modding community is as tragic as gaming gets—but in a Gestalt fashion I can
live with it.
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